Page 123 of Loreblood

Skar cleared his throat. “We’ve gotten the formalities out of the way. Vallan is here, Iron Sister?”

“He is. Been upstairs all night.”

Skar sighed. “His urges . . .” he muttered, shaking his head.

My head whipped between them as they talked like I wasn’t there. I took a step back so they could converse more easily.

“No, in fact,” Keffa said, “Master Stellos’ urges have been kept at bay for some time now, surprisingly. He has been upstairs doling out the silver and helping with the construction of weapons.”

“Good.”

Vallan’s urges? What in the Damned are they talking about? Construction of weapons?

There was clearly more to this operation than I’d seen on the surface. The more I listened to them talk about schematics and goings-on, the more intently I wanted to be part of it.

Whatever the Sisters were doing, however they were aligned with Skartovius Ashfen, I wanted involvement. I wanted change, which both of these people represented, despite theirvastdifferences in every other category.

Seeing Skar converse so casually and respectfully with a human woman, and a poor one at that, made me see a new side to him. I was surprised someone so violent and vicious andsuperiorcould deign to accept help from homeless, beggars, and outcasts.

It was a marvel to witness.

As Keffa and Skar lowered their voices and continued to talk, their conversation drowned away. I lifted my gaze to the painting of the round naked lady lying on the couch, tilting my head as I tried to think of all the possibilities my future might entail.

One possibility I had never expected popped up behind me a minute later, in a voice so familiar I nearly tipped over.

“Quite fat and lovely she is, yeah?”

I gasped and spun.

Her face was gaunt, purple bags drooped her cheeks, but her eyes were as livid and bright as ever, and her smile just as sharp.

The shout that burst from my lungs startled the girls at the table as I rushed her in an embrace that crushed her scrawny ribs.

“Jinneth!”

Chapter 39

“Tell me everything,” I implored. I sat across from my old friend at a table, leaning forward excitedly.

Jinneth had not grown larger in the year we’d been apart. She’d grown no less rambunctious, either. “What’s there to tell, Sephy? The honorable asshole Demilord Tymon Aldion was a proper prick, yeah? As you’d suspect from a snobbish Buver workin’ out the Commerce Ward.”

“Commerce Ward.” I grabbed onto the phrase. “I’ve been there. So he was rich at least, no?”

She snorted, rolling her head on her shoulders. “Could’a fooled me. I never saw a single copper tit. Did keep me well-fed and well-fucked though.” She shrugged and pouted. “It wasn’t all bad, yeah?”

There was a glimmer in her eye as I snickered.

Her chin nudged past me, to where Keffa and Skartovius were still deep in conversation beneath the painting. “Got yourself holed up with the lord of the manor himself, do ye?”

Color filled my cheeks. “It’s . . . not like that.”

She barked a laugh, smirking. “Keep telling yourself that, Sephy. A tree like that to climb? I’d be doing it all day. Well, all night, given what he is, yeah?” She winked and leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Bet the cock on him is long as he is tall—”

“You’re more spirited than ever, Jin.” My face couldn’t get much redder. I got the sense Jinneth greatly enjoyed teasing me.

“Can you blame me? Haven’t had a proper romp in, what, six months? Since theincident.”

“The incident? Is that what brought you here?”